Many municipalities and private organizations struggle with managing motor vehicle commuter use of the finite number of parking spaces available in any particular lot, community, or jurisdiction. At the same time, commuters driving cars, vans, sport utility vehicles and the like, struggle to find open and available parking spaces in popular locales.
Separately, municipalities and private organizations may desire to reserve parking spaces in choice locations as “rewards” for certain individuals or to serve as consideration in a pay-per-use revenue generating scenario.
In order to reserve and manage parking spaces, some entities have employed static signage to indicate that select spaces are considered to be “reserved” for use only during certain hours or only by vehicles bearing certain indicia of privilege, such as a decal or tag placed prominently in or on the authorized vehicle. Such a system requires active policing for non-compliance, such policing often taking the form of physical parking wardens who, while performing a circuit of all parking spaces in a given area, write citations to unauthorized users or take other corrective action.
Other entities employ physical barriers such as walls or toll gates to limit access to privileged parking areas. By tracking the number of vehicles granted admission to such areas and by ensuring that the number admitted in any particular interval does not exceed the maximum number of available spaces, entities can guarantee that drivers of admitted vehicles will secure suitable parking.